St. Augustine's View of God

Augustine

            St. Augustine says “things of the world poured forth from God in two ways: intellectually into the minds of the angels and physically into the world of things.” Because of this search for what God is like take many turns and twists to understand it. St. Augustine in his later life tried to search for God and he was restless and determined to meet God. In his quest he struggled with himself to find the truth. In his early life St. Augustine did his philosophical studies, he read Socrates and Cicero and they made impact on his life. He spoke about being taught by the teacher and what it means to be a teacher. A teacher is one who has an idea of what truth is, the students with the help of teacher his words and philosophical understanding discovers the truth.  Augustine realized that this truth was within himself. In The Confessions he writes on varied topics, his autobiography, philosophy, and theology. Augustine received baptism only at the age of 32, before that he followed Manicheism (At its core, Manichaeism was a type of Gnosticism—a dualistic religion that offered salvation through special knowledge (gnosis) of spiritual truth. Like all forms of Gnosticism, Manichaeism taught that life in this world is unbearably painful and radically evil.), he lived by having recourse to pure reason and philosophical thoughts. Born and raised in Thagaste, his early studies trained him to devote him to intellectual pursuits, rather than pursuit of God. In his youth he was lost in principle of pleasure and fun but in his quest for truth and wisdom he left his vices. Augustine was passionate for philosophical truth, he learned doctrine of Manicheism and Neoplatonism. He also related Neoplatonic ideas with Catholic theology. At the age of 17 he took concubine and after 15 years she bore him a son Adeodatus. When he was studying in Thagaste he lost his best friend because of which he returned back to Carthage, at this time he became Manichee. When he was in Cathage he read Cicero which led him towards the search for wisdom and further his studies were driven towards it. Augustine, though reluctantly, pursued philosophy to its very limit, he learnt   that truth is not merely something we are given, but something we must also choose; this idea of his was very distinct from all other philosophers who were in search of truth. Once his son Adeodatus was discussing about problem of learning and teaching, he had heard, “man is only prompted by words in order that he may learn, and it is apparent that only a very small measure of speaker thought is expressed”. Augustine added that we learn “whether things are true” from him who dwells within us by grace. This inner truth was something that was independent of the teacher, and in a sense of the learner. Augustine as he was searching for the truth also taught as a teacher of rhetoric at Carthage. After meeting Faustus, a Manichee wise man, Augustine was ready to explore more truth. When Augustine read about Neoplatonism he replaced his Manichee beliefs. He was impressed by Neoplatonic solution to the problem of evil and also tried to see striking philosophical similarity to the Bible. The bishop of Milan Ambrose had strong influence on him. First Augustine had tried to relate Scripture and philosophy but he could not get at inner meaning of Scripture. Further when he accepted Scripture, he was happy to get the value of scripture only after philosophy as they gave him solid ground for what was yet to come.

In pursuit of truth and wisdom he had company of two young men, Alypius and Nebridius. They formed a philosophical circle to find out what they were discovering.  Three of them the young potential philosophers tried their best. St. Augustine from his nineteenth to his thirtieth year, was searching for the truth but had not yet reached. Thinking his immoral life as hindrance to his pursuit he changed his life. In his philosophical discussion when he meet Platonists, their ideas brought him to reflect about God, evil, and transcendent being. He realized to seek after higher way than philosophy. When in agony of deciding what to do in his attempt to search the truth he heard a voice which told him to “take and read”. He read from the Apostle’s text passage from the Letter to the Romans: “not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof”. Of all the classical young men, potential philosophers, who sought the truth, Augustine perhaps was the first to stress that this same truth must also be chosen. Not only by philosophical intervention but also by grace. Augustine was a true follower of Socrates in knowing himself. He was clear that, truth we must look for is a truth we do not make. Augustine addressed many philosophers and Socrates who were in search of truth that their quest was not wasted. Socrates at last defined that he did not know and he knew that he did not know. Augustine taught differently he was clear of what he knew about himself; even what he didn’t know about himself but by the light of what he knew and by that light of God his darkness was enlightened.   

Reflection

            What is God like? This book tries to describe God and our understanding to meet him in our life. The writer tries to explain God, about God by our ordinary experiences that we experience in our lives. The book speaks about meeting the personality of God by describing different examples of mystics, intellectuals and Christian models who have encountered God at different degrees in their lives. James Schall describes how we meet God in different situations of our life, in frailty in laughter and in our friendship. Not everyone gets to know about God with the help of intellectual truths. As God wants everyone to be saved He meets us wherever we are. God meets us in our personal experience which is at the core of our being. By the mutual search between us and God, we encounter each other and then we truly understand what God is like. God would also directly tell us His true self. But, God takes the risk of our refusal and by His grace He works in our life to make us realize His importance and his need for us. By this we get the idea of what God is like. We are given intelligence to understand rightly about relation between God, world, evil and ourselves. All this is fulfilled by the “Word that was made flesh”. The Incarnation guides to know what God is like. The reflection in the book ends with Augustine whose life – with Monica, Alypius, Nebridius, Adeodatus, and Ambrose – was in fact a response to God’s search for him. His restless heart sought the truth and when he found it, he changed his life for that truth. The story of Augustine tells us that we might see that even in frailty and in our sin God is there, not just redeeming the sinner, but through this redeeming teaching him, he taught us.